Release the Kraken! — The Ductopus Is Bad for Air Conditioning

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Just a quick little post today to show you the new image I put together. Last year I wrote an article about a type of duct system that's just a complete mess. A lot of home energy pros call it the ductopus. It's just a radial system installed without any real design behind it. The ducts all radiate off of the supply plenum and the air flow is often pretty bad.

When I published the article last year, I included my favorite ductopus photo, one that I took in 2006 here in the Atlanta area. When my wise guy friend from Connecticut, John Poole, saw it, he remarked, Release the Kraken! This weekend, it suddenly struck me that this would be perfect for one of those photos with captions that are so popular on Facebook, so I turned it into one.

What do you think? Feel free to download and share it if you like it.

By the way, John is more than just a wise guy. He's a historical preservationist who lives in (and works on) a very old New England house. He also writes an interesting blog called A Preservationist's Technical Notebook about that topic and more. Check it out.

Comments

John Poole

John Poole

Thanks much for the Krakeny kred, Allison! And very nice poster. Frankly, I bet you've got enough material for a whole series of great home performance posters like this one. There are no Krakens in my own cellar, BTW, though there are a number of other things living down there :-)

Allison Bailes

Allison Bailes

John P.: You're welcome! I didn't realize it was 'Krakeny kred' I was giving you, but I'm glad you like it.

Bob Seaton

Bob Seaton

182 years ago Tennyson's poem found The Kraken "battening on huge sea worms in his sleep", dreaming of Grade I Insulation compliance and awaiting the day that global warming brings him hollering to the surface --

"Below the thunders of the upper deep;

Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,

His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep

The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee

About his shadowy sides: above him swell

Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;

And far away into the sickly light,

From many a wondrous grot and secret cell

Unnumbered and enormous polypi

Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.

There hath he lain for ages and will lie

Battening upon huge sea-worms in his sleep,

Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;

Then once by man and angels to be seen,

In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die."

Erik North

Erik North

Allison,

Since you're giving permission, I'll feature it on my next Journal of Poor Homebuilding.

John Poole

John Poole

Hmmm...I'm thinking there might be a place here on this blog for poetry parodies inspired by home performance and energy efficiency...

"I wandered lonely as a batt..."

:-)

Bob

Bob

Sad thing is he has more $$$ wrapped up in material than if he did the job right...

Jim

Jim

I saw something very similar to this in a new house under constuction here in the south. The system was located in the attic,verical install with a lot of the ductwork running right under the roof with no insulation under roof decking.

Seth

Seth

Holy ____! I thought my system looked like Rube Goldgerg designed it. Mine looks great compared to this! The best way to kill this monster is to find it's creator & lop off both his hands.